49. Stay With Me

       “Baby . . . What happened?” Waverly asked, slowly walking over to her. The redhead followed her with her eyes as she closed the door behind her. Waverly moved in front of her, eyes tracing over her face. Nicole barely met her eyes. It was like she was looking straight through her. Now being so close to her, she was sure the blood wasn’t her’s. A small relief, but a relief, nonetheless. “Ok, Love . . . Let’s . . . Let’s go get you cleaned up.” She gently placed her hand on the small of her back and guided her to the bathroom. “I’m going to go get you some dry clothes, ok?” The redhead brought her eyes to meet her’s for a second and she took that as a yes.

       She rushed into the bedroom and grabbed her favorite hoodie and a pair of shorts and some stuff for herself. She walked back in and found her staring at herself in the mirror with an unreadable face. Her top lip was hitched slightly and her eyes were locked on their own reflection. She set the pile down and started up the shower, warmer than usual for her. After getting the Officer stripped out of her soaked uniform, she jumped out of her own clothes and got Nicole eased under the water. 

       The Deputy looked down at the red-tinted water, watching it swirl down the drain as Waverly reached around her body and rubbed the blood off of her hands and arms. She let out a shaky sigh, leaning back into the small girl. Waverly moved around to her front and cupped her face in her hands, running her thumb across the smears that hadn’t washed off all the way. “It’s gonna be ok,” she soothed. 

       She got Nicole dry and dressed after the shower, taking her into the bedroom and getting her into bed. She turned the lights off and laid down next to her, pulling her into her arms, feeling her curl her fingers tightly around the front of her shirt. She pushed her fingers through her hair gently, hoping and praying she could sleep this off and be able to talk about it in the morning. And, frankly. She was terrified. 

       After about two hours of lying awake, she swore she heard something mumbled against her neck. She sat back a little bit, looking down at her face. “What, Baby?” She asked in a whisper, tipping her head up. 

       She saw the color had returned to her face. Her lips had returned to their normal pink and her cheeks regained their red tint. 

       Nicole met her eyes. Actually met her eyes. Not just a glance over. She locked her own on Waverly’s for the first time. 

       “What’d you say, Nic?” She asked again softly. The redhead swallowed, eyes welling up with tears. Waverly cupped her cheek, eyes filling with worry again. 

       “I killed somebody, Wave.”  

       The brunette’s eyes closed as she listened to the redhead begin to retell the events of her night.

-  -  -

       “I will bet you $50 that you cannot do that. There is no way.” You see, Lonnie is a very special soul. And it was proven more so when he bet that Nicole couldn’t hit the marker standing up on his desk off with a pencil topper from the other side of the room. 

       “Yea?” The redhead asked, holding back her smirk. 

       “Shake on it,” he grinned, holding out his hand. She raised her eyebrows, connecting their hands in a firm handshake. “Well, Boys, looks like I’m eating good tonight,” he bragged, crossing his arms and puffing out his chest. Nicole sucked in a breath, shaking her head at him as she lined up her throw, flicking it across the room with a sidearm toss. 

       She gave him a dimpled smile as the sound of the marker clacking against the tiles filled the room. “Looks like I’m eating good tonight,” she smirked in a low voice, holding her hand out. He rolled his eyes, smacking the $50 into her hand. 

       “You just got lucky,” he mumbled, turning away. 

       “Oh, did I forget to mention that I was America's best catcher in high school? Whoopsie,” she shrugged, shoving her thumbs into her belt. 

       “You’re an ass, Haught.” 

       “Oh, c’mon, Looney Toons, you love my ass,” she protested. He turned to look at her with a glare. 

       “Haught,” Nedley grumbled, poking his head out from his office, giving her a knowing look. 

       “Sorry,” she mumbled, holding back a smile. He shook his head at her with a chuckle, walking back in and closing his door. She shoved the bill into her wallet and walked off to the break room to pour herself a cup of coffee before heading to go do paperwork. 

       Her radio fizzed over mid-pour. “We’ve got a domestic disturbance at 531 Barkley Drive with shots fired. All units respond.” Nicole’s eyes snapped to the other deputy in the room before she took off to her office to grab her bulletproof vest, slipping it on over her uniform. 

       “What else you got, Lucy?” She asked the dispatcher. 

       “Boy called it in. Says his step-dad has a gun on his mom. The shot was aimed at the wall to scare her.”

       She let out a grunt as she jumped into her car. “Jesus Christ,” she mumbled to herself before flicking her sirens on and speeding off, pushing the button on her radio. “We got a name to go off?” 

       “Step-dad’s name is William Adams.” 

       The redhead let out a scoff. “I guess all wife-beaters are named William.” She pressed the button on her radio. “How many other people are in the house?” 

       “3,” Lucy answered. “Mom, boy, and little brother.” She nodded, taking a sharp corner, speeding down Barkley Drive. “Officers. The line was just cut. I think he’s got the boys.” 

       “Shit,” the Officer said through gritted teeth, skidding to a stop in front of the house. The 4 other cruisers came to a halt all around her. She climbed out and rushed over to Nedley. “What’s the plan, Sheriff?” She asked, checking the clip in her pistol.

       He cleared his throat and grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the other approaching Deputies. “Haught, if you need to hang back on this one, we have enough men to handle this.” 

       She let out a confused laugh. “Why would I need to-” Her eyes settled on his face and she pursed her lips, standing up straighter. “Sir, with all due respect, I joined this force knowing that I may run into a situation much like my personal experience with a crazed lunatic, so if you will excuse me, there are two young boys in that house scared shitless of the madman with a gun coming after them and I’d like to do my duty and help them.” She pushed past him and walked back over to her colleagues. Nedley followed and her and the other Deputies stood around him as he began to go over the game plan. 

       As Nicole listened to Nedley explain how this was going to go, she scanned her eyes around the house. She squinted into the garage, thinking she saw a familiar baseball bag sitting in the garage. Her heart dropped to her feet.

       “Lucy, I need a name on the kid,” she sputtered out, gripping the cruiser door she was standing next to. 

       “I didn’t get a last name, but his first name’s Orion.”

       Her eyes bugged out of her head as she cocked her gun. “We’re moving in. Now,” she ordered, giving a stern eye to Nedley. She and the other three quickly moved up towards the door. 

       “Sorry, I didn’t realize Haught took my position,” the Sheriff barked at them.

       Nicole spun around to face him. “Nedley, one of my boys are in that house,” she snapped, pointing to the door. “I’m not lollygagging anymore.”

       His eyes widened and he looked towards the front door, clenching his jaw. “Let’s go.” She gave him a firm nod and moved to her position next to the side of the house and Nedley moved to his own on the opposite side, testing the doorknob, proving it was locked. “Purgatory Sheriff’s Department! We’re coming in!” Nedley stepped back and kicked the door in, and they stormed into the house, beginning to do a sweep. Schmitt and Lonnie headed to the left towards the dining room and kitchen and Haught, Wagner, and Nedley headed towards the right towards the stairs. Her radio fizzed. 

       “Dispatch, I need a bus at this location. Mother is unconscious from blunt force trauma to the head,” Schmitt called over. She sucked in a breath, heading up the stairs with the other two right behind her. They heard a scream, presumably by the younger boy, from the room at the end of the hall. Officer Haught jogged quietly to the door, looking back to the other two and getting a nod from Nedley before swinging the door open and raising her gun.

       Faster than a blink, a black-haired shirtless man yanked Orion up off of the floor where he had been beating on him and held him in front of him, shoving the gun against the side of his head. 

       Nicole’s heartbeat skyrocketed and she locked eyes with Orion.

       “Don’t come any closer or I’ll shoot ‘em!” He warned.

       “Drop the gun, William!” Nedley ordered. 

       “Make me, Pig!” He slurred. 

       “C’mon, Will, you don’t wanna do this!” Wagner pleaded. “Just put the gun down!”

       Nicole traced her eyes around the room, seeing the little boy, probably 2 or 3 years old, holding his knees to his chest in the closet. Orion started squirming around in his arms, trying to get away. “Orion, stay still! It’s ok. Just stay still,” the redhead blurted, widening her eyes at him. His eyes shot up to her face, tears streaming down his cheeks as he stopped moving. 

       The three spent the next 10 minutes trying to convince William to let the boy go, but he wouldn’t budge. He was convinced that he was their father because he was married to their mom and apparently the boys wouldn’t call him dad. It also didn’t help that he was more than drunk.

       “William! This isn’t going to end well either way. You’re either walking out of here in cuffs or a body bag! Take your pick!” Nedley warned. 

       “What? Ya gonna kill me? Do it. I dare ya!” 

       “I know you don’t want that,” Nicole said, shaking her head. “You say you’re the father to these kids? You want them to see their dad killed right in front of them?”

       The man’s face twitched with anger. “Maybe I should take this one down with me then, huh?!” He pushed the gun harder against his head. 

       “No, William! Just let him go. Let’s end this peacefully, alright?!” Wagner begged.

       Nicole could tell he was getting more and more agitated by the second. 

       And the rest happened in slow motion. 

       “Yea, well, maybe I don’t wanna do that!” The man shifted both of their bodies to face Nicole and moved the gun against Orion’s back. 

       POW! POW! POW! 

       The three officers jumped away from the line of fire as he shot through the boy at them. Orion wailed in agony, bullets ripping through his body. The younger boy in the closet screamed his name. Officer Haught rolled to face the man, seeing him trying to stand the boy up straight to shoot at her again. She lifted the gun, aiming towards the man’s head. 

       POW!

       A tear rolled down her cheek as both of their bodies slumped to the ground. She dropped the gun and crawled towards the boy, pulling his head into her lap. 

       “Orion!” She pushed the hair out of his face, placing her hands on his wounds to try and slow the bleeding. “Orion, look at me.” His fluttering eyes slowly met her eyes. 

       “It . . . It hurts, Coach,” he choked out. 

       “I know,” she sniffed. “I know. Shh.” Wagner dropped down beside her and took his uniform shirt off, handing it to her to hold against his wounds. “Go- Go get his brother out of here,” she told him. He quickly stood, rushing over to the closet and picking the screaming little boy up, carrying him out of the room. She could faintly hear Nedley communicating with the dispatcher over the thoughts plowing through her mind. 

       “You’re gonna be ok. Stay with me. Orion, stay with me!” His eyes slowly rolled back, lids closing. “Nonono, Orion, wake up! No!” Nedley dropped to his knees beside her, taking her position holding the shirt against his torso. She scooted from underneath his body, pressing her fingers against his neck, feeling no pulse. “Nono, you are not dying on me, kid!” She sobbed, starting CPR. 

       “Dispatch! You put a damn rush on that bus for this kid! He’s lost a pulse!” Nedley screamed into his radio.

       Nicole stopped compressions, blowing two breaths of air into his lungs. She began again, tears streaming down her face as she felt his ribs cracking under the force of her hands. “You are not dying today, Orion, do you hear me?! I’m not going to let you die!” She delivered CPR to the boy until a handful of EMT’s rushed into the room a few minutes later. They had to pull her off of him so they could take over and Nedley grabbed onto her. 

       “They’re gonna take care of him, Nicole. They know what they’re doing,” he soothed, keeping her away from him as they began to work.

       “H-He can’t die. They can’t let him die. H-He never did anything wrong, Randy.” 

       “I know. I know, Kid,” he nodded. He grabbed her shoulders and stepped in front of her. “You need to pull it together, Nicole. That boy needs you to pull it together.”

       She blinked at him for a few long seconds, final tears spilling out of her eyes. She cleared her throat, wiping her face as she watched them carry Orion out on a gurney. “Ok. Ok.” They walked downstairs and outside, watching them load him up. “Sheriff, can I go with him? Please? I-I need to go with him,” she begged.

       He looked up at her with soft eyes. “Go. I’ll get the paperwork started.” He clapped her shoulder. She gave him a nod as a thank you and ran over to the ambulance, jumping into it right before they closed the doors. 

       The vehicle sped off as the men got him hooked up to a hundred different machines, poking and prodding him with needles. 

       “PULSE!” One shouted. “I’ve got a pulse!” Her head lifted from her hands, eyes wide. Then men began to work faster, doing everything they could to stop, or at least slow, the bleeding.

       Over the ride, they lost and gained his pulse three more times. They quickly got him out of the ambulance and rushed him inside, a whole gaggle of nurses and doctors beginning to work around him, shouting different doctor terms that she couldn’t understand. 

       “Officer, we need you to wait out here,” one of the nurses directed, grabbing onto her arm and pulling her into a small waiting room outside of the trauma unit. “Can I get you anything?”

       She shook her head sharply. “No, no. I’m fine. H-How’s his mom? She got brought in earlier.” 

       “I think she is conscious now. I can take you to see her if you’d like?”

       Nicole shook her head again. “I-I think I’d just scare her even more walking in there like . . . well, like this. If you could tell her what’s going on, that’d be great.” 

       The lady nodded. “I will do that right away, Officer,” she said, turning around. 

       “One more thing?” Nicole called after her. “Update me on his condition if anything changes. Immediately,” she ordered. 

       The nurse nodded again, slower this time. “Yes, Officer.” She turned away again, rushing off to Orion’s mother’s room. She pushed her hands down her legs as she took a seat, pulling her phone out of her pocket to check the time. She knew it was about 2 when she left the station. 

       Her phone screen was shattered. She figured when she jumped out of the way she had landed on it. She shoved it back with a sigh, squinting up at the clock on the other side of the room. It was now almost 3. She let out another sigh, dropping her head back into her hands.

       She wasn’t a religious person. Yea, she celebrated Christmas, but that was for the family and giving gifts part. 

       But at that moment in time. 

       Nicole Haught prayed. 

       She prayed to whatever entity could possibly be watching over them.

       That that kid would make it. That Orion would live. 

       She didn’t know if it was possible. She didn’t know what organs those bullets shot through. She didn’t know what damage they had caused. 

       But she didn’t care.

       Orion Wu was a fighter. And she didn’t want this battle to be his last. 

       The nurse tapping on her shoulder dragged her out of her thoughts. “We’re rushing Orion to surgery. He has a stable pulse right now and we need to remove the bullet fragments and repair his intestines because bowel liquids are spilling out into his body.” 

       “Do whatever you need to do,” she mumbled. The woman nodded, rushing away again. 

.  .  .

       “I shot a guy, Randy,” she said, slowly looking up at her boss a couple of hours later. “I killed him. Right in front of those kids.” 

       “Hey. That bastard deserved to die and you know that. He would have killed Orion or one of us. Hell, maybe both. Don’t beat yourself up, ok? Trust me when I tell ya that your first is always the hardest.” She hugged her arms tightly around herself, looking down at the floor of the hospital. She knew he deserved to die. He deserved much worse than that, but death was the next best thing. 

       But it all just kept replaying over and over. 

       He shot through Orion. She jumped out of the way. She shot William and watched him fall lifelessly to the ground. She held the child as he died and then tried with everything she had to bring him back to life. 

       She knew she would never forget the way his eyes rolled back or how it felt to have bones crack and break under your hands. 

       A shiver crept up her spine and she couldn’t take it anymore. She shot up from her seat and smacked her card onto the counter, telling the lady to call her when he got out of surgery. She made a mad dash out of the doors of the hospital.

       Right into the rainy darkness. 

       A storm must have rolled around since she had gotten there. The Officer stood right in the middle of the walkway of the entrance to the hospital, looking up into the cloud-covered sky, feeling the large raindrops pummel onto her face and all over her body as she began to pray again. 

       A pair of hands grabbed onto her shoulders about a minute or two later, pushing her forward. “Do you want to get struck by lightning?” She heard the gruff voice of Nedley as she was pushed towards his cruiser. “I’m taking you home, Haught. Get in the car.” 

-  -  -

       “An-and he’s probably dead right now and the-there’s nothing I-I can do!” Nicole bawled as Waverly wrapped her arms around her as tight as possible. 

       “No,” she sniffled. “Stop saying that. You don’t know that, Baby.” 

       “H-He lost so much blood an-and he could barely hold a pulse for 15 minutes. I don’t see how they can fix him, Wave.”

       The brunette pulled away from her, holding her head in her hands. “What Orion needs right now is some faith. You need to believe that those doctors are going to work a miracle and that he is going to pull through this. That’s all you can do, Baby.” More tears poured out of the redhead’s eyes as she wrapped her arms around her again. Waverly laid them down and pulled the blanket back over them. “I need you to get some sleep, Nic,” she whispered. 

       “No. When the hospital calls, I’m going up there.” 

       Waverly pursed her lips. “I’ll watch your phone, Love. I’ll wake you up right when you get the call, ok?” She looked down at the redhead’s already drooping eyes. 

       “Ok,” she sighed.

       “Ok,” Waverly smiled, kissing her forehead. She crawled out of bed to go grab Nicole’s phone out of her uniform but heard her own ringing as she walked down the hallway. “Nedley?” She answered. 

       “Hi, Waverly,” he replied, voice sounding strained and tired. 

       “Wh-what’s going on?” She asked, bringing a hand to her mouth. 

       “Well. I told the nurses to tell me when Orion got out of surgery and not to bother Nicole. And I just got the word. He’s in stable condition, just left the operating room a couple of minutes ago.” Relief rushed over the smaller girl, shoulders relaxing and hand dropping from her mouth. “Listen, Dear . . . I’d rather Nicole wait to come and visit him until she’s had some sleep and gathered herself. She was pretty shaken up tonight. I haven’t seen her like that since . . . Well. So, if you could just do me a favor and wait to tell her until she’s slept this off?” 

       “Of course, Sheriff. I didn’t plan on her going in the state she’s in anyways. I just got her to lay down now.” 

       She heard him sigh loudly into the phone. “Thank you, Waverly. I’ll have someone drop her car, gun, and vest off later. She left it all at the scene . . . And, uhm, if she needs a few days off, that’s fine with me, too. She’s a great Deputy. I just think this one hit a little too close to home . . . in a few ways.” 

       The brunette nodded her head. She did agree with him there. “I’ll watch over her, Sir. She won’t be back until her head’s on straight and I can guarantee you that.” 

       “Good luck with that one. Tell her I’m already filling her shift for the next 3 days, so if she does want to come back, she won’t have a shift to work.” 

       “Will do, Nedley. Thanks again . . . And thanks for taking care of her tonight. I don’t know where she’d be if you wouldn’t have driven her home.”

       “It’s no problem. I’ll check in later to see how she’s doing.”

       “Sounds good. Talk to you later, Sheriff.” 

       “Bye, Waverly.” She hung up the phone and let out another sigh as she walked to the bathroom, pulling the still-wet pants out of the sink and emptying her pockets, laying all of her cards and money in her wallet out to dry. She tried to turn the phone on, but the screen stayed dark. She wasn’t sure if it was because she had really broken it or if it had gotten too wet. She tossed it back onto the pile of clothes with a sigh. Either way, she needed a new phone. Crawling into bed next to the sleeping redhead, she curled behind her, wrapping her into a spoon and pulling closer. 

       She had always thought it was weird that Nicole used feminine body wash and Old Spice shampoo. She insisted that she “just really liked the smell of it”. It’s not that she minded. She liked the smell of it too. 

       But it broke her heart a little bit now. Because Nicole had grabbed the first shampoo bottle in the shower that she saw today. And it hadn’t been her own.

       The smell of her own strawberry shampoo wafted into her nose with every breath. 

       And it was just another reminder that the Nicole she had left at Shorty’s yesterday was not the same Nicole that she was holding right now.